Shefali Shetty

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Unlike most of my filmcritic.com colleagues, I don't live in New York or San Francisco, where the movie premieres are numerous. As a result, I'm often left to review less prominent releases. This means having to endure potentially soul-crushing endeavors, watching Soul Survivors and On The Line while the rest of the world doesn't fritter away perfectly good hours.

Then there are the times when I discover a gem, and my faith is absolutely restored. India native Mira Nair's award-winning Monsoon Wedding is such a treasure. It's funny, touching, dramatically forceful, and beautifully shot. It has some great songs. It offers a lingering and informative look at the Indian culture and its traditions. In fact, the more I describe its merits the further I drift into hyperbole.

"Monsoon Wedding" could be seen as Bollywood's answer to "Father of the Bride," but such a comparison would be selling short this choice culture clash comedy-drama.

Said clash is an internal one, however, between the modernized, Westernized everyday lives of an upper middle-class New Delhi family and their Punjabi rituals and traditions that include the arranged marriage at hand.

Beautiful, stunningly blue-eyed young Aditi (Indian pop singer Vasundhara Das) has agreed to the match made by her parents because she's become bewildered by her mixed-up life and wants to force herself to take a direction. This is easier said than done, since even the night before the wedding she's still being led to temptation by a lover she's trying to leave behind -- a married, egocentric and manipulative TV talk show host.